This invention relates generally to tools and related methods of use for applying plaster material or the like to an inside corner joint between adjacent drywall panels in a building. More specifically, this invention relates to an improved and easy-to-use corner radius tool for spreading plaster material along an inside corner joint with a smoothly radiused and variably selected surface geometry.
Drywall panels of plaster-board material or the like are used extensively in residential and commercial construction projects to form interior walls within a building structure. In accordance with common construction techniques, the drywall panels are securely mounted onto frame components such as wall studs. Thereafter, joints formed between adjacent drywall panels are taped and filled with plaster material or the like to form a desired smooth and substantially uninterrupted wall surface.
The process of taping and filling exposed joints between adjacent drywall panels involves substantial manual labor and considerable skill to provide the desired smooth and attractive wall surface. In this regard, particular difficulties are encountered in filling an inside angle corner joint. More specifically, plaster material is pressed into and spread along the inside corner joint in an effort to form a smoothly radiused corner surface of substantially continuous cross-sectional geometry for the entire length of the corner joint. Variations in a radiused inside corner, involving fluctuations in sharpness of the corner contour, can be particularly unsightly.
In the past, various manual tools have been provided for use by construction workers in the taping and filling of joints between drywall panels. Some of these tools have been specially adapted for applying plaster material to an inside corner joint, and in a manner providing a substantially uniform radiused surface at the corner joint. Such tools, however, have included rigid tool heads for spreading the plaster material with a fixed surface geometry, within an inside corner of fixed angular shape, for example, a ninety degree corner. Prior corner radius tools have not provided the ability to selectively vary the geometry of a smoothly radiused plaster material surface at an inside corner joint, nor have such prior tools been capable of forming a smoothly radiused surface on an inside corner joint formed at an angle other than ninety degrees.
The present invention overcomes the problems and disadvantages encountered in the prior art, by providing an improved corner radius tool for applying plaster material to an inside corner joint between adjacent drywall panels, wherein a smoothly radiused corner surface of variably selected geometry can be formed quickly and easily at an inside corner of virtually any angle.